BlackBerry Was a Miracle McCain Helped Invent, Campaign Adviser Says

Did he steal this from Al Gore?

Politico's Jonathan Martin, with the help of Amie Parnes, has been blogging this morning about a claim from a John McCain supporter that the Arizona senator helped invent the BlackBerry.

Asked what work John McCain did as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

Martin then posted the denial later in his blog, noting that the McCain staff disavowed the comment:

Matt McDonald, a top McCain aide, said the candidate "laughed" upon hearing Holtz-Eakin's claim.

"He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry," McDonald said. "This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer," McDonald said.